A new province of the World Wide Web intended for Spanish speakers launched Wednesday, March 19. The ".uno" domain, one of the Internet's new web address suffixes helping to sort out the ever-expanding web, is looking to become the one place for "El Internet en Español." We talked with Shaul Jolles, CEO of Dot Latin LLC, the company behind .uno.
Sprint wants to get in on the prepaid wireless action - more than it already is. On Friday, the company announced a new prepaid plan, including some lower prices, and some other cool new features.
Hispanics are interested in three main things from their mobile service: social media, video content, and streaming audio, says T-Mobile's senior vice president of brand and advertising Peter DeLuca. As the fastest growing population in the United States, Hispanics are becoming a key focus group for politicians and advertising firms alike, and DeLuca recently shared his take on Hispanic trends in the mobile market with Latin Post.
A new Latino startup is on the scene, with the aim of taking the power of crowdfunding to Latino communities across the Western hemisphere. HIPGive is a new crowdfunding site by Hispanics in Philanthropy, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The internet is about to get a lot bigger, come mid-March, when another batch of gTLDs (generic top level domains: various alternatives for the ".com" or ".org" that follows a web address) hit the public. On March 19, one of those gTLDs up for grabs is .UNO, the first dedicated domain for Spanish-speakers.
Latinos in technology had a presence at South by Southwest Interactive this year, with varying degrees of turnout and success. Sessions at the SXSW Latinos in Technology pre-conference focused on how modern technology affects Latino communities, while at the same time feeling a little left out of the SXSW community.
The recent row over the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet rules, and net neutrality in general, isn't the only thing going on in the world of cable and its government regulator. Recent regulatory changes signaled by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler have been positive signs beyond the Open Internet kerfuffle, and a Latino watchdog is happy.
Cable giant Comcast is extending its program to give low-income households cheap broadband internet access, as part of a public relations campaign leading up to the possible merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
With dirt-cheap international messaging apps like WhatsApp coming to prominence, thanks to Facebook's not-so-cheap acquisition of the company, the pressure is on telecoms to keep their customers, like many Latinos, who frequently communicate across borders. Time Warner Cable (which also provides phone service) is responding with free calls to Mexico.
The technology industry, and Google in particular, has been the target of community rage in the San Francisco area resulting from the economic and culture clash between well-moneyed tech workers and average, long-term residents. Google is seeking to lessen the strain - and perhaps the hard feelings - by recently donating millions to provide low-income youth in the area free transportation.
The Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce, which launched a business network last year to support Latino entrepreneurs, has announced that the Hispanic social business network has grown quite a bit in just a few months.
With the World Wide Web turning 25 this year, the Pew Research Internet Project unveiled a massive study (with more to come) looking at how Americans' lives and attitudes have changed over the course of the Web's life.
AT&T's HACEMOS, a Hispanic/Latino Association hosted its annual National High Technology Day across the U.S. on Thursday to help get Latino and other minority high school students excited about careers in high-tech fields.
With the Federal Communications Commission going back to the drawing board on Net Neutrality and Comcast recently announcing its proposed take-over of Time Warner Cable, the internet landscape as we know it is changing. National Latino organizations are reacting - with what could be described as "skeptical optimism."
The presence of Google (and other tech giants) in the San Francisco Bay Area has already sparked local protests against corporate bussing, gentrification, and rising housing prices - as well as a paranoid anti-tech underground - but Google's latest plans may turn up the heat even more. Google is planning on moving some of its operations into the Latino and immigrant-heavy Mission District.
Just in time for Valentine's Day, the Pew Research Internet Project has released a survey about how the internet and social media has impacted couples' lives. The takeaway? The internet and the devices connected to it can be good relationship tools, if treated properly. Also, people are sexting more.
While Latinos remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and professions in the U.S., Puerto Rico is having a different sort of problem: U.S. recruiters are stealing away with Puerto Rican STEM graduates. But the island's government is trying to end the brain drain, using LinkedIn as a tool.
"Hispanics are ahead of the digital curve" according to a new report from Nielsen, which found that the average Latino is more likely to own a smartphone and frequently use cutting-edge digital media on the internet.
As part of a campaign to help increase low-income and monolingual Latinos' access to online education, as well as health care information, some groups in California are providing personal computers and internet access. One group in the San Francisco Bay Area have made strides, helped by a holiday-time campaign and fund drive.
AOL hasn't been mentioned much in online conversations since the late 1990s, but the company is trying to change that by reaching out to hip, growing, and increasingly moneyed audiences - and it's found the online Latino demographic a perfect target. The company just closed a licensing deal with multi-channel Latino web video network MiTú.
Latinos are one of the fastest growing segments of internet users, which also happens to be predominantly Catholic. For Catholics, if there was any doubt that Pope Francis like the internet (he tweets from his account @Pontifex), there isn't now: Pope Francis has called the internet a "gift from God."
